Absorbent articles having a chassis are supposed to be worn like a pair of pants and to have a comfortable fit about the wearer. The article includes a front region and a back region that either may be fastened together by means of fasteners like adhesive tapes of mechanical fasteners, for example hook and loop fasteners, to assume a pant-like shape. Alternatively, the front and back portions are interconnected along the longitudinal sides to form a pant-like absorbent article. In a further alternative the article is provided with belt members, usually at the back region, which are intended to be fastened together around the waist of the wearer, and subsequently the front region is fastened to the belt members.
For pant articles, like pant diapers, sanitary pants and incontinence pants, it is also desirable that the articles are capable of being pulled up and down over the hips of the wearer to allow the wearer or caregiver to easily put on and remove the article when it has been soiled. Such absorbent pants can be made with elasticized stretchable side panels and waist portion, usually including elastic members, such as elastic threads, contractably affixed between the backsheet and the topsheet.
Further, at least portions of the chassis of absorbent articles can be made of an elastic material, such as elastic laminates. Such laminates may include an elastic layer, for example an elastic film or nonwoven, which has been stretched and sandwiched between outer layers of fibrous layers. An elastic laminate may also be formed of a plurality of elastic threads which are attached in a stretched conditions between layers of material, for example nonwoven materials.
Examples of absorbent articles which in part are made of elastic laminates are for example found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,476,289, JP 10043235 and WO2005/122984.
Disposable absorbent articles are intended for single use and are not adapted to be laundered and reused, as regular underwear. Many absorbent articles, especially pant articles, are similar in appearance, size and shape as regular underwear and there is a trend towards making disposable absorbent articles more and more underwear-like. For example adult users of disposable incontinence garments want these to be as discrete and underwear-like as possible.
Many caregivers as well as users of absorbent articles have a problem differentiating between the front and back of an absorbent article. Normally it is important for a proper fit and absorption characteristics to wear the article in a correct way. Many elderly adults have poor eye sight which can add to the problem of identifying the front and back of the absorbent article, for example an incontinence pant, and thus properly positioning the article on the body.
US 2007/0265591 discloses a disposable absorbent article including a removable indicium on the waistband for facilitating the identification of the back or front of the article and to thereby promote a correct fitting of the article to the body. The indicium may be in the form of a printed label which is removably attached to the waistband or a label printed with a heat activated ink that will become less visible when maintained at a temperature for a predetermined period of time. The idea is that the user of the article does not want the brand name to remain or appear on the article during or after use. There is however a risk that the label will come loose unintentionally before use of the article or during use, in case it is not removed before use.
There is therefore still room for improvement with respect to making the absorbent article more underwear-like and making it easier to identify the back or front of an absorbent garment intended to be worn around the waist of a wearer.